09-26-2021, 05:12 PM
This old post by Leanne made me think:
I don't really understand why I like Blake so much.
For example:
'Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?'
and later,
'gave thee clothing of delight,
softest clothing, wooly, bright,
gave thee such a tender voice
making all the vales rejoice'
has such beautiful music about it. But the words themselves are so simple, so plain. It's almost as if anyone could have written it.
There's a similar problem in chess. If you look at the games of Paul Morphy in the 19th century today, you can pretty much anticipate all of his moves. Coming to Alekhine in the 1910s and 1920s, it's harder to do that. By the time you're with Tal and Fischer, it's very hard to do that. And when you come to Kasparov and Carlsen, it's another level. That came from standing on the soldiers of giants.
But with poetry, is it true that Ted Hughes or Philip Larkin, or Dylan Thomas, not to mention more recent eminences, could have written The Lamb?
(12-07-2011, 06:53 AM)Leanne Wrote: .... When I first read Blake in school, I hated him -- I thought his poems were far too simple, very rigid and a little bit pompous. I was very impressed with obscurism as a teenagerOriginal thread here: http://www.pigpenpoetry.com/newreply.php...lyto=85043
I don't really understand why I like Blake so much.
For example:
'Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?'
and later,
'gave thee clothing of delight,
softest clothing, wooly, bright,
gave thee such a tender voice
making all the vales rejoice'
has such beautiful music about it. But the words themselves are so simple, so plain. It's almost as if anyone could have written it.
There's a similar problem in chess. If you look at the games of Paul Morphy in the 19th century today, you can pretty much anticipate all of his moves. Coming to Alekhine in the 1910s and 1920s, it's harder to do that. By the time you're with Tal and Fischer, it's very hard to do that. And when you come to Kasparov and Carlsen, it's another level. That came from standing on the soldiers of giants.
But with poetry, is it true that Ted Hughes or Philip Larkin, or Dylan Thomas, not to mention more recent eminences, could have written The Lamb?